I love granny squares. Despite their fixed shape, I think they’re pretty versatile. You can stop at any point and make them whatever size you want, and they have a delicious kind of pixelated appeal. And of course they don’t have to be squares, which just opens their potential even more. They can be arranged and built upon, like legos or tessellation blocks, into endless configurations.
And the granny stitch is really having a moment, particularly among the young folks. The younger-than-me folks, they in their teens and 20s. There’s an interesting phenomenon about the way Gen Z finds and consumes knitting and crochet patterns versus those of us in older generations, who have been using Ravelry, books, and magazines. They create and consume on video – Youtube tutorials and shorter-form Tiktok clips. These designs are more custom, fitted to a single body, often experimental and artistic. They’re tied to one of many microtrends and “vibes”. A lot of them are sexy! And when they do go viral, it’s often because the technique is so simple it hardly requires the effort of a written pattern – it’s better to show than tell, get views instead of individual pattern sales, or just make the item to sell.
Granny stitch – so hot right now. Last year I couldn’t resist jumping aboard, so I pulled together some odd partials of sock yarn from Neighborhood Fiber Co. to create my own granny square cardigan.
This project was improvised and only made with my own body in mind, but I did take much inspiration from Amy Christoffer’s Ariana Cardigan. I just kept making squares and attaching them as I went until I felt I had enough to reasonably cover my back and shoulders. It was a great travel project – I remember I was working on this quite a bit during the 2023 holidays and driving to see family, and it’s nice not to need a pattern pulled up on my phone or printed out.
Once all the squares were assembled, I draped the two front panels over my shoulders and marked enough room for arm holes, then seamed up the sides. Then I just did simple granny stitch sleeves in the round, decreasing every ten rounds or so until they got to 3/4 length. While I had just enough of my contrast colors, I did not luck out with the main color, and had to get two more skeins to complete the project. No regrets, I love this color (Petworth).
I wore my granny square cardigan out this week when I went to see Faetooth during their first east coast tour. Faetooth is a three-piece from LA who describes their ethereal, shoegazey metal as “fairy doom”, and when I saw they were coming to my city I jumped on a ticket (good thing too, the show was sold out). They were touring with Sunrot, who I hadn’t heard of before, but were an absolute pleasure. Sunrot especially has incredible stage presence and messaging; they had free fentanyl testing strips, narcan, and condoms available for the crowd, and brought an expert on harm reduction on stage to talk about community care. When it looked like a fight might break out in the crowd, Sunrot’s singer stopped the set to make sure everything was cool and that no one was about to get hurt. And both they and Faetooth delivered messages of love for trans and non-binary people and solidarity for Palestine. There’s been many metal musicians who’ve gained notoriety for acts of violence and depravity to shock the “normies”; but there are as many metal musicians who point out that violence and depravity are in fact very mainstream, especially when perpetrated by our governments. The message of this show was that taking care of one another is the radical act.
I knew I wanted to wear something handmade to this show because DIY is a big part of metal and punk music, and well, this is how I DIY. In addition to enjoying the music, I enjoyed the crowd and the hand-stitched patches on their battle jackets, their hand-painted and dyed clothes, their repurposed and mended fabrics. There is an interesting event horizon here, where sustainability for aesthetics and sustainability for economic necessity meet and it’s unclear which came first. Either way, it’s craft, and craft/art/music says “If it does not exist, make it.”
Yarn
Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sock, colors (Center of the granny squares outward) Oliver, Federal Hill, Cedarcroft, Upton, Petworth)
Smitty is Knitting 